


the indisputable, irrefutable, undeniable signs

by toriiixoox



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: 5 Things, 5+1 Things, Best Friends, Falling In Love, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Idiots in Love, Love Confessions, M/M, Mutual Pining, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-23
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-14 05:07:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29662209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/toriiixoox/pseuds/toriiixoox
Summary: Suga knows every single sign that Daichi is in love. He just wishes that the signs would be directed at him for once.Alternately:5 telltale signs that Sawamura Daichi has fallen in love+1in your face sign that Sugawara Koushi has been in love for a while now.
Relationships: Sawamura Daichi/Sugawara Koushi
Comments: 10
Kudos: 67





	the indisputable, irrefutable, undeniable signs

**Author's Note:**

> this wasn't even supposed to be a 5+1 fic, but here we are. i binge-wrote this in 2 hours and it's the best thing i've ever written. I used to write a shit ton of tsukiyama, but now i've pledged allegiance to daisuga. 
> 
> ENJOY

Suga and Daichi have been friends long enough for Suga to know the signs. He’s been around long enough to see them in action. He’s seen them with different people who have lasted for different amounts of times, but every time it rang true. It’s gotten to the point where Suga knows before Daichi even knows. 

There are 5  _ distinct  _ signs of when Sawamura Daichi is in love and Suga is so painfully aware of every single one. 

* // *

  1. **the belly laugh**



There weren’t many people that could make Daichi  _ really _ laugh. It took a certain type of person with a certain type of humor that knew Daichi just right. When he really did laugh, it came straight from his belly and it would almost knock Daichi over completely. He’d hold his stomach laughing and he’d shake his head repeatedly and it was one of the most heartwarming sights that just filled you with a sense of accomplishment. 

It wasn’t a laugh you could get out of pity or a laugh that you could fake. It was real laughter that had to be earned. If you were funny enough to coerce it out of him, it was a telltale sign that the process was beginning. 

Sometimes the feelings wouldn’t progress past this stage. Quite a few potential crushes have made Daichi  _ really _ laugh. Suga would watch very carefully as Daichi hunched over and laughed. He’d keep an eye on this person, on their and Daichi’s relationship to see if it progressed to something further. Most of the time, it didn’t. 

* // *

  1. **the perfect tea**



However, if they were able to make Daichi laugh and it  _ did _ progress, the next sign was Daichi coming into school with a thermos of hot tea. 

There is not a single drink on this Earth that is more comforting and perfect than Daichi’s homemade hot tea. It’s a custom mix of loose leaf teas enriched with a blend of herbs and spices and finished with fresh lemon. It’s a recipe that he came up with himself, a recipe that he’s never shared with another soul, not even his parents or his siblings. 

He would bring it in a black thermos and hand-deliver it to whoever the lucky recipient was first thing in the morning. He wasn’t weird about getting the thermos back (though the tea never lasted long enough to take the thermos home) and he didn’t pester whoever it was about enjoying it. It was just a kind, thoughtful gesture to whoever he fancied at the moment. It only made the person on the other end fall for Daichi even more. How could they not? 

* // *

  1. **the free lunch**



Sometimes it was a forgotten lunch (and sometimes that forgotten lunch was intentional). Other times, it was just a better option for lunch. Whatever the reason, the day that Daichi invited this crush to their lunch table and said crush was blushing and showering Daichi with gratitude was the day that Suga knew it was getting serious. 

Daichi didn’t just buy anyone lunch. Sure, he had that  _ father-figure aura _ , especially when he became a third-year and the captain of the volleyball team, but that didn’t mean he was large on spending his part-time job wages on other people’s lunches. He didn’t do it often and he didn’t do it for a lot of people, so when he did, it was a big deal.

* // *

  1. **the week-long accompaniment**



The grand gesture to end all grand gestures. 

Daichi would walk them to their class every morning for a week straight. It didn’t matter if their class was all the way across the school or if they liked to get to class 10 minutes extra. Daichi knew and he would be ready to go. He walked alongside them and asked them about their morning before dropping them off at the door and waving goodbye. 

He’d run back to his class if he had to. It didn’t matter. It wasn’t just a day or two, it was the entire week. On Monday, he would make sure to be at their locker extra early and ask them if he could walk them to class the next day and it would just follow suit all throughout the week. It was caring and attentive and teetering on the edge of falling in love. 

* // *

  1. **the head scratch**



If Daichi laces his fingers in someone’s hair and gently scratches 3 times, it’s over. It was the final push that the relationship needed. It is the Sawamura Daichi equivalent to a confession. It might as well be a lengthy kiss on the lips. It might as well be a question of going steady. It’s the straw that breaks the camel’s back time and time again. 

It’s usually accompanied by an infatuated smirk and eye contact that would make anyone else uncomfortable. Plus, bonus points if his hand lingers before falling back to his side. Suga has only seen it 3 times before, but that didn’t make it any easier to swallow. This physical touch was gentle and intimate and it meant that Daichi was already in it. 

It was the sign that Daichi had fallen in love. 

* * *

So why does it all matter? Where’s the importance in the signs that Suga has been watching so meticulously over the years of their friendship?

_ Michimiya Yui _ . Suga has watched Daichi and Yui for the past few months and they are just one step away from Daichi declaring his love to her right in front of everyone. 

The declaration comes on a Friday afternoon after practice when Yui shows up seconds after they’ve finished for the day in the form of the last sign. Even though Suga knew it was coming, it’s still hard to watch. He can’t see Daichi’s face, but he can just imagine how awestruck and smitten he looks right now. Yui looks so surprised, but of course, she does. It must be so shockingly incredible to be on the receiving side of Daichi’s affection. 

Daichi places his hand in her hair and Suga’s heart just drops. He’s not close enough to see the movement of his fingers, but he knows the motion all too well. 

This might be it. 

Asahi walks over to Suga at the exact moment that Suga’s body cringes. “Are you okay?” Asahi asks, concern written all over his face. 

“Daichi’s in love,” he explains, exhaling through the sentence. Asahi wasn’t a stranger to the pining that Suga’s done for the past few years. He doesn’t necessarily know the list of signs that Suga has compiled in his head, but he does know how Suga continues to watch him from the sidelines. 

“What?” Asahi asks, taken aback by the large statement that Suga has so subtly made. 

“He put his hand in her hair and did the head scratch thing,” Suga throws his arms up in exasperation. He’s been talking about it for less than a minute and he’s already making himself sad. 

“What?” Asahi repeats, the confusion on his face just getting deeper. 

“Don’t you get it, Asahi? He’s  _ in love _ with her!” Suga whines, watching Yui talk to Daichi. Her lips are moving fast and she’s wiping her palms on her skirt. She looks so nervous. 

“What?!” Asahi asks for the third time. This time, he follows Suga’s line of sight until he sees Daichi talking to Yui as well. “Slow down. What about a head scratch? Daichi’s in love with Yui? What?”

Suga just nods at first, prying his eyes off of Daichi and Yui and looking at Asahi again. He knows that Asahi doesn’t have a mean bone in his body, but if he did, he’d be shaking Suga and rolling his eyes and telling him to act instead of pouting and whining.

He starts to explain, mumbling through his side of things, “Daichi has this thing he does when he’s in love with someone. He’s done it to everyone he’s ever been in love with. He puts his hand in their hair and scratches their head and it’s really endearing and he just did that to Yui.”

“You mean the same scratch he does to you when you’re being too hard on yourself?” Asahi asks, but it’s obviously rhetorical. 

“He doesn’t do that,” He starts out so strong, so sure of himself. Suga would have recognized if Daichi did the be-all and end-all of signs directly to him. How could he miss it? He knows all of the signs inside and out. He could see it from a mile away, but maybe only from the outside. The rest of Suga’s sentence isn’t nearly as strong, “… to… me.”

“He does. He does it every time you’re being too harsh and critiquing yourself an ungodly amount,” Asahi explains again. It’s not attacking or abrasive like it probably should be. Asahi is just stating what he knows. 

“That’s! That’s… That’s…….. Different,” Suga says, unconvincingly. He wants to turn the conversation back around. He can’t get it through his head that Daichi could actually like him. It doesn’t seem possible. “Plus! That doesn’t explain why he’s done every single step with Yui! Clearly, he’s in love with her!”

“Ah! That’s so embarrassing! I had a piece of rice in my hair from lunch!” Yui complained to Kiyoko, who she was pulling through the gym by her arm, as she passed by Asahi and Suga and sped out the doors. 

Suga doesn’t miss a beat. “Oh my God, it wasn’t a head scratch. He was getting something out of her hair,” he mumbles to himself. 

“Steps? Wait. What were you saying? What steps?” Asahi questions, paying no mind to the slow unraveling of Suga’s perception of Daichi and Yui’s relationship. 

“I-, well,” Suga says, slowly. Despite him and Asahi being really close friends, it feels like the type of information that he should just keep to himself. How creepy is it that Suga has watched every one of Daichi’s relationships and knows the things he does when he’s in love? It’s creepy, right? Even if it wasn’t intentional, he still knew. He watched in longing, in jealousy, and he saw the signs. His brain was jumbled in thought. Plus, it definitely didn’t help that Yui had just unintentionally shaken up his entire day. 

“Suga?” Asahi says, trying to get his attention.

He takes a deep breath, trying to filter out his anxieties and filter through the million thoughts he has in his head. “There are a list of signs that mean that Daichi’s in love. I didn't, like, track them, but I saw a pattern and every time it proved to be true. It’s the belly laugh and then the tea, you know the tea, and it’s the buying them lunch and then walking them to class and then the hand in the hair,” Suga lists off, avoiding eye contact with Asahi in case he thinks that he’s totally weird. 

Asahi is quiet for a moment. He’s not looking at Suga. His eyes are darting all around and he’s furrowing and unfurrowing his eyebrows as he swivels his head, deep in thought. “Daichi never gave Yui tea,” he finally says. 

“What?” Suga asks, the confusion that Asahi had on his face earlier has now taken place on Suga’s. 

“And he never bought Yui lunch,” Asahi continues, ignoring Suga’s questioning. “I mean, he gave her lunch money one time because she forgot, but Yui paid him back and Daichi politely declined, but then ultimately accepted it. Yui’s funny, so she probably did make Daichi laugh really hard, but that’s just Yui.”

Had Suga been looking way too far into it? Had the signs never really been there? Was he just manifesting them to be? “I- Asahi, are you sure?”

“Positive,” Asahi says, nodding in confidence. One look at his face and Suga knows it’s not out of sympathy or pity, these things that Asahi is explaining. 

Maybe there was a reason Suga could see it before Daichi. Maybe it was just a million times easier to notice the signs as someone who’s not involved. Maybe it was even easier to make them appear out of nothing as a way to justify staying silent about your feelings. 

“But he does for you,” Asahi says quietly, “Buy you lunch and make you tea and laugh at your jokes and walk you to class, I mean.” 

Suga cocks an eyebrow, looking at Asahi, but not saying anything, just thinking. He wants to protest instantly, but his brain relives every memory that Asahi has just spoken. He had written off every single one of the signs as things that Daichi just did for him on the regular, and they were. They were things that Daichi did for Suga so frequently. That didn’t mean that he was in love with him… Right? 

The question sits in his head, repeating itself and repeating itself and repeating itself until he notices that the team has started leaving, waving goodbye and a “see ya later!” 

“Hey, are you and Suga still walking home together?” Asahi asks as Daichi passes by. Suga wants to kick him. He could probably get away with it too if Daichi hadn’t been right in front of them. Everyone in the gym had left already except for the three third years. 

“I didn’t think you’d wait around for me this long. I have to sweep and then we can walk back together,” Daichi says, stopping in front of Suga to explain. His face is red from the intrusion that Daichi’s unknowingly made. 

The pout comes without intention, just a bodily reaction to having to wait to walk home with Daichi, even if the thought of it is making his stomach upset at the current moment. His eyebrows knit together and he stops himself from verbally objecting, but his bottom lip juts out and his hands plant firmly on his hips. 

It’s like the world slows down. 

Daichi reaches forward, fingers outstretched, waiting to take place in tangled locks. Suga sees it perfectly clear, Daichi’s captured smirk and twinkling eyes. He feels Daichi’s hand slid into his hair and he counts them. 1… 2… 3… His hand rests in his hair, soft and lingering for a beat before returning to his side. “I’ll hurry up. I’ll be ready to go in 10, okay?” Daichi says before jogging away to the storage closet. 

“Wow. It’s almost as if Daichi’s in love with y-,” Asahi starts, but he doesn’t make it to the end of his sentence. He’s cut off by Suga’s hand, swatting at Asahi’s arm a few times, trying to make some sort of contact, and then waving him away furiously when he doesn’t. 

“Shhh. Shut up. Don’t say another word,” Suga says just in case the motion wasn’t enough. 

“I’m going to get going. You guys probably have a lot to talk about, so I don’t want to linger,” Asahi smiles and Suga can’t tell if it’s genuine or secretly diabolical. “Bye Daichi!” he calls out as he winks to Suga and throws his bag over his shoulder. 

Suga’s left alone now with only his scattered thoughts and the faint sound of the broom against the hardwood floor. He knows Asahi is right. The pieces are connecting in his brain. How had he not known sooner? 

He’s the only person that gets to hear Daichi’s belly laugh consistently. He hears it every single day of his life and it never fails to put a smile on his face. It’s the entire reason that he considers himself funny and why he wants to keep making jokes. The sound of Daichi’s real laughter alone is enough to make his heart flutter. 

He’s tasted Daichi’s perfect tea. He’s obsessed with it and Daichi knows it. He brings one for Suga on stressful mornings and special occasions and sometimes just to put a smile on his face. He’s even joked about telling Suga the special recipe. In fact, Suga’s the only one who knows that the base is a mixture of black, green, and white tea. 

He remembers the first time that Daichi bought him lunch. He hadn’t forgotten his lunch money or complained that he wanted something different. Daichi just walked over to him and set down food in front of him as if it was nothing. It wasn’t the last time either. In fact, Asahi had always joked about the fact that Daichi never bought him or Kiyoko lunch. As they became second years and third years, as their friend group grew and they met new people, Suga saw, though he never really thought about it, how Daichi would still only buy Suga’s lunch. He chalked it up to best friend status and never batted an eye. 

The week-long walks to class were nullified of any indication because Daichi walked Suga to class every single day. It was so much longer than a week. It started their 3rd week of school and continued to this very day. Even in the 3 weeks that Daichi walked various crushes to class, he always made it back in time to walk from Suga’s locker to their class together. It never felt like anything special, not at the moment anyway. 

And now the head scratch, the icing on the lovesick cake, the last piece of the puzzle, the essential part to the quinfecta of Daichi’s adoration had  _ just _ happened. It’s like the universe was sticking its tongue out at Suga and shoving him forward into figuring out his feelings and acting on them. 

The signs were so blatantly obvious, but they never felt like anything. It just felt like Daichi and Suga were best friends. They had been going on for so long, they just became routine. 

“You ready?” Daichi asks, nodding towards the door. Suga’s been stuck in his own head justifying his slow discovery for so long that Daichi has already cleaned up and is ready to go. He looks up from the floor, signaling that he’s ready to go.

How long  _ has  _ Daichi been in love with Suga?

* * *

Daichi has never seen the signs of Sugawara Koushi falling in love. Or, rather, he’s never recognized them. It’s hard, anyway, if you’re not on the outside looking in. Suga had an advantage. He saw Daichi fall in love 3 times. He had 3 opportunities to notice all of the signs and jot them down to memory.

Suga has only ever been in love with one person. His signs of falling in love are far more subtle. It’s in the way that he goes out of his way to make the person laugh. It’s in the way that he waits by his locker every single day, knowing and trusting wholeheartedly that they’ll be there to walk him to class, no matter how close they’re cutting it. 

When Suga falls in love, you know because he waits at the end of the school day, no matter what the other has to do or how long they have to stay, just to walk home with them. You know because on the walk home, Suga feels like he can finally breathe. All of the troubles and nerves and anxious thoughts that he’s had all day fade away.

Daichi hasn’t recognized the signs before, but he can’t miss this one. 

* // *

**+1. “I’m in love with you, Sawamura Daichi.”**

Suga says it at his front door, standing on the step because he likes to be a little bit taller than Daichi sometimes. He says it with a confidence that only someone who  _ knows _ the other person feels the same way could say it. 

It takes Daichi by surprise because of course, it does. Suga had the entire walk home to cope and come to terms with the fact that the guy, his best friend, that he’s been pining for since the day they met, is in love with him too. 

Daichi doesn’t say anything at first, but Suga’s not worried. He lets Daichi soak it all in, lets the words culminate inside his brain, gives them air to breathe. 

“I- I’m in love with you, too, Suga,” Daichi eventually stammers back. His eyes are still wide and Suga doesn’t have to have his hand pressed against Daichi’s chest to know that his heart is beating out of control. He does, though, have his hand pressed into Daichi’s now. He can feel his pulse and clammy palm and he gives Daichi another moment to process it. 

“I know,” Suga replies. It’s airy and light. It’s his own little joke. He knows that Daichi is confused. He can see it in his face, but Suga’s brain has no capacity for regretting anything at this point. He knew that Daichi was in love with him and that’s the reason that he felt confident enough to confess. It was fine that Daichi knew that.

“How? How did you know that?” Daichi asks, tilting his head to the side. He doesn’t look weirded out or annoyed, two things that a non-blissed-out Suga would be worried sick about. Daichi has a smirk on his and a raised eyebrow and he’s trying to put the pieces together himself. 

“Can’t I just know things, Dai?” Suga asks, batting his eyelashes and using the grasp on Daichi’s hand to pull him closer.

“Well, did you just know?” Daichi asks, following the pull.

Suga shakes his head, a bitten lip replacing a knowing grin as he does so. “It’s just the little things that you do for me,” Suga explains, inching his face closer to Daichi as he does. “It’s the little things that I thought were just little things until I realized that they were something more.”

“So cryptic,” Daichi replies, trying to follow whatever Suga is saying. It’s hard considering Suga has draped both of his arms around Daichi’s neck and has just the most beautiful smile on his face. “You don’t have to tell me, I suppose,” he gives in. “But will you at least kiss me?”

His cheeks hurt and his chest feels like it’s floating and Suga can’t take it any longer. He leans in, tilting his head and brushing the tip of his nose against Daichi’s cheek before pressing his lips to Daichi’s. They’re soft and Suga can feel his jagged breath before they connect and it’s making his heart beat as fast as his thoughts were racing. 

They linger here for a while, just kissing in front of Suga’s front door. Suga makes sure of it. He’s waited, longed, pined for too long to give up this moment too soon. He knew that there would be more of them, knew that this was the first of many, but there was only one first kiss. He refused to waste it, to let it go too soon. Besides, Daichi’s arms were snaked around his waist and the longer that the kiss was, the tighter his hold was, and the less he wanted to move. 

When they finally break apart, Daichi rests his forehead against Suga’s and just takes a second to catch his breath, laughing as he thinks about the entire situation. He pulls away but lets his grasp on Suga’s waist stay for as long as Suga will let it. 

“So, what is this about you knowing that I was in love with you?” Daichi asks and Suga shakes his head, kissing his lips again. Even with Suga’s lips trying to silence him, Daichi’s laughing and asking questions. Though don’t be mistaken, he’s definitely not trying to move away from the kisses. He just wants some answers. “How long have you known? Who else knows? Why didn’t you say something sooner?”

“I found out today.”  _ kiss  _ “Asahi knows. He’s the reason that I know.”  _ kiss  _ “Again, just found out today and I told you straight away, so.”  _ kiss _

Daichi pulls away this time. He moves his arms from his waist too. He reaches up, holds Suga’s face in both of his hands, and forces Suga to look at him. “But what gave it away?”

Suga melts into Daichi’s touch and then he sighs at the question. It was so hard to explain that each and everything that Daichi did proved that he was in love with him. It wasn’t just one thing that gave it away, it was the culmination of the small gestures and the repetitive affection. It was the fact that everything was so subtle. Sure, the realization hit during the last affection head scratch, but that’s not the reason that everything was so clear to him. How could he explain this feeling to Daichi in words when it was just the feeling that brought it all together for him?

“You,” Suga says softly, “You gave it away. You love in tiny, plentiful bits and I felt every single one of them. It just took me a while to put the pieces together.”

Daichi steps back, looks Suga up and down, and then hums, completely satisfied. “I love you, Koushi.”

“I love you, Dai,” Suga reciprocates, leaning forward to kiss him again, but Daichi pulls back a tiny bit, a thoughtful look on his face. 

“I thought you were going to say that you knew because I made you tea and walked you to class every day. I thought I was practically screaming it at you,” he says, shrugging.

“I’m going to kill you, Sawamura.” 

“What?! What did I do?” Daichi asks, wide-eyed and puzzled. 

“You made me fall in love with you and then you never even acted on it!” 

“I thought you knew and didn’t feel the same way!”

“I thought that you were just being nice to me because I was your best friend!”

Daichi’s the first one to break, laughing so hard that he has to hold his stomach. Suga can’t stop smiling at the sound. I guess, maybe, he should’ve known sooner, the signs  _ were _ all there. 

**Author's Note:**

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> 
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